Hudson-Mohawk genealogical and family memoirs, Volume I, Part 5

Author: Reynolds, Cuyler, 1866-1934, ed
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 656

USA > New York > Hudson-Mohawk genealogical and family memoirs, Volume I > Part 5

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Stephen Van Rensselaer

HUDSON AND MOHAWK VALLEYS

Cecilia, born in Rye, New York, November 3, 1853. married at Rye, New York, June I, 1887, Hamilton R. Fairfax.

6. Philip Schuyler, born at Albany, October 14, 1806; died June 1, 1871 ; married, October 17, 1839, Mary Rebecca Tallmadge, born May 16, 1817, died August 3, 1872, and had : James Tallmadge; Philip, died in 1882; Cornelia ; Clinton ; Franklin ; Cortlandt.

7. Cortlandt, born at Albany, May 25, 1808; died at Burlington, New Jersey, July 25, 1860; married, September 13, 1836, Catherine Led- yard Cogswell, born September 22, 1811, died December 24, 1882, daughter of Mason Fitch Cogswell, M. D., by whom : Philip Livingston ; Alice (Hodge) ; Elizabeth Wadsworth (Byrd Grubb) ; Ledyard Cogswell; Alexander.

8. Henry Bell, born at Albany, May 10, 1810; died at Cincinnati, Ohio, March 23, 1864: married, August 22, 1833, Elizabeth Ray King (daughter of Governor John Alsop King and Mary Ray), born August 17, 1815; by whom: Euphemia, Elizabeth (Wadding- ton), John King, Katharine (Delafield), and Henry.

9. Cornelia Paterson, born at Albany, July 8, 1812; married Robert Turnbull, M. D., February 16, 1847; by whom Cornelia Pater- son (Turnbull) and Catherine Euphemia (Turnbull).

10. Alexander, born November 5, 1814; died, 1878: married, 1851, Mary Howland ; (second). 1864, Louisa Barnewell, and had: Samuel Howland, Mary, Louisa, (Baylies), Mabel, and Alice.

II. Euphemia White, born at Albany, Sep- tember 25, 1816; died May 27, 1888 ; married, May 2, 1843, John Church Cruger : by whom Stephen Van Rensselaer (Cruger), Cornelia (Cruger), and Catherine (Cruger).

12. Westerlo, born at Albany, March 14, 1820: died at Albany. July 8, 1844.

(VI) General Stephen Van Rensselaer, son of General Stephen Van Rensselaer, the eighth Patroon, and Margaret Schuyler, was born in the Manor House at Albany, New York, March 29, 1789, and died in the same place, May 25, 1868.

He was given a thorough education, and enjoyed the benefits of culture acquired by travel abroad and by continual association with people of refinement. In social and pub- lic life he was greatly respected, and in his family much beloved.

A leading event in his life, as it affected him and his family, was the anti-rent feud. Anti-rentism had its origin in Albany county. Its existence dated from the death of General Van Rensselaer in 1839, the last holder of the Manor of Rensselaerswyck under the

British crown and its regulations. He was known to that generation as "the Patroon," was sometimes styled the "good Patroon," and after his death as "the old Patroon." Primogeniture was the law of inheritance in England, so it had been to some extent in the British colonies, and, as the eldest son, Stephen Van Rensselaer had inherited the Manor. But the Revolution and subsequent laws changed the rule of inheritance, giving alike to all the children if no will were made. In order to break the force of this radical change, and so as to continue this vast landed interest in the hands of his two eldest sons, Stephen and William Paterson Van Renssel- aer, General Van Rensselaer (1764-1839), on reaching his majority, had adopted the sys- tem of selling his lands in fee, reserving to himself in the conveyances, and to his heirs and assigns, all mines and minerals, all streams of water for mill purposes, and beyond this, certain old-time feudal returns, denominated rents, payable annually at his Manor House, usually specified as so many bushels of good, clean, merchantable winter wheat, four fat fowl, and one day's service with carriage and horses ; finally the reservation or exaction of one-quarter of the purchase price on every vendition of the land. In other words, one condition alone provided an income to him every time the purchaser of land should resell it. It is said that the mind of Alexander Hamilton conceived and framed this form of lease or conveyance for Van Rensselaer's es- pecial benefit.

Under such peculiar conditions, the land of the Patroon in Albany and Rensselaer coun- ties was sold to innumerable purchasers for farms. The system operated successfully dur- ing the life of the Patroon; but when his son Stephen (born in 1789), inherited the land by his father's death in 1839, a new and scri- ous trouble arose. The first purchasers did not object, for they had bought with the defin- ite understanding clearly before them: but on the death of the Patroon and also of the purchaser, the successors of the latter, as new owners, began to grow restive under the bur- dens imposed, and when either Stephen or William P. Van Rensselaer pressed for pay- ments of the money due as reserved in the deeds, the owners of the land began to ques- tion the legality of the reservation.

To Stephen Van Rensselaer and his younger brother. William Paterson Van Rensselaer, the Patroon, General Stephen Van Rensselaer, had devised by his will, drawn on April 18, 1837, all interest in the lands thus sold by him in fee, with the reservations of rents-in other words, they believed that they owned or re-

HUDSON AND MOHAWK VALLEYS

tained the soil. Stephen, the oldest son, was to receive the rents in Albany county, and William P. Van Rensselaer those in Rens- selaer county. The rents at this time came in more sparingly and were paid more re- luetantly than they had been to the father, who had been noted as one of the most gentle, kind-hearted and benevolent of men, often generously reducing the rents and in many ways calling forth the love and gratitude of the landholders. The only course open for his son was to sue in the courts, and it was not long before a strong hostility developed. The legal contests of a quarter of a century might have been avoided if the lawyers had perceived that the deeds of the Patroon, being absolute conveyances of all interest in the lands, the reservations were, for that reason, invalid as incumbrances, made so by the Eng- lish statute, known as the statute of quia emptores, which rendered it impossible for a British subject, on a conveyance in fee of his land, to make, or if made, to enforce by re-entry or forfeiture, such feudal reserva- tions. That was a right remaining in and belonging to the crown alone. It is probable that Hamilton assumed that that statute was never in force in the colonies, for it was adopted hack in the reign of Edward I., and later lawyers might have dismissed the con- sideration of it on the assumption it was not the law of either colony or state.

In the spring of 1839 the anti-renters held their preliminary meeting, numerously at- tended by all the farmers living in the Helder- berg towns. They appointed a committee to wait on Mr. Van Rensselaer to ascertain whether a compromise might not be effected. On May 22 the committee visited the office of Mr. Van Rensselaer, but he refused to recog- nize them, and instructed his agent, Douw B. Lansing, to inform them that he would com- municate in writing. He did so, informing them that he considered it would be an in- justice to himself and his family to consent to their claims.

From that time on, his agents had much difficulty in collecting rents, and frequently, when attempting to do so, were held off by shotguns. In December, Sheriff Archer was obliged to call to his aid, in serving process, the posse comitatis, or power of the county. Among prominent citizens summoned was ex- Governor William L. Marey, who went as far as Clarksville. On December 3rd the sheriff, with his posse, numbering six hundred citi- zens, started from Albany for Reidsville, some sixteen miles from the city. Arriving within a few miles of the place where the disturb- ance was expected, he selected seventy-five of

the stoutest-hearted and pushed on to Reids- ville, where it was understood that the anti- renters were collected in force. Before reach- ing Reidsville the sheriff and his posse en- countered no less than fifteen hundred men, mounted upon their farm horses, posted across the highway, who absolutely barred further progress and ordered the smaller body to go back. The sheriff and his men could but comply, and gladly marched back to Al- bany, arriving at 9 o'clock that night.

The next morning the sheriff presented an exaggerated account of what had transpired to Governor William H. Seward, who deemed it his duty to call out the militia, and forth- with he ordered out a force sufficient to cap- ture every man, woman and child upon the Helderbergs. It consisted of the Albany Bur- gesses' Corps, Capt. Bayeux ; Albany Union Guards, Capt. Brown; Albany Republican Ar- tillery, Capt. Strain; First Company Van Rensselaer Guards, Capt. Kearney ; Second Company Van Rensselaer Guards, Capt. Berry; Troy Artillery, Capt. Howe; Troy Citizens' Corps, Capt. Pierce, and Troy City Guards, Capt. Wickes.

Major William Bloodgood was in command of this formidable body of citizen-soldiery, and, headed by Sheriff Archer, they moved on Reidsville, the morning of December 9, 1839. Its march, with colors flying, drums beating and cannon rumbling, was decidedly imposing. It found no enemy to attack. Re- maining on duty in camp for a week, it re- turned sadly bedraggled, in a cold rainstorm, somewhat chagrined. Under proclamation of subsequent governors, similar demonstrations took place, all the time the landholders hop- ing that Mr. Van Rensselaer would seek a compromise. Politicians were alive to bring the landholders into line, and urged the press to take the inatter up, with the result that The Freeholder, published in Albany, became ' their organ, while The H'hig, or the paper opposed to the Democratic party, secured the greater number of anti-renters. After many years the question was allowed to drop from polities and the courts took it up. The court of appeals rendered decisions in special cases in 1852, 1859, and finally in 1863, after which the matter rested. Many who sought to risk their fortunes that they might be large gain- ers, bought the claims of the landholders, and Walter S. Church in this way acquired in- numerable pieces of property and was in liti- gation until his deathı.

The large area of the once famous "Lumber District" extending along the river front from North Ferry street, northward for a mile, and real estate in or close to the city, were not

HUDSON AND MOHAWK VALLEYS

encumbered by perpetual leases, and remained as a source of income for members of the three generations following. Among the pa- pers preserved by the family is the account- book of General Abraham Ten Brocck, the guardian during the minority of Stephen, and under the entry of a "charge for beef and liquor consumed in a dinner to the tenantry on this your glorious twenty-first birthday" is a brief mention of a transaction which many years later took from the Van Rens- selaers many of their acres. On that day the Patroon sold in fee, with warranty of title, his farming lands in Albany and Rensselaer counties, and no less than nine hundred farms of 150 acres each, or more than 207 square miles, were leased on that day.

On June 3, 1843, the Manor House was opened after extensive alterations made by Architect Richard Upjohn, the leading archi- tect of the time, whose handiwork may be seen in Trinity Church, New York. The wings had been torn down, the whitestone had been removed and replaced with brown New Jersey sandstone, and the great wings and porch in front had been added. The new building bore no resemblance to the old, even in architectural style. The brick exterior was now concealed behind a coating of sanded mastic, and the new stone-work was for the most part of a strictly classical design ; but in gables and belt courses a distinctly Gothic tendency prevailed. The building was rec- tangular in plan, with the great hall, 24 feet broad, extending from the front to the rear, some 46 feet. On either side of front and rear doors were large windows with deep window-seats. The walls of this hall were decorated with frescoes which in their day were the wonder of the country. These were painted upon large sheets of heavy paper, and were executed in Holland especially for the room, and put on the walls in 1768, as is shown by the bill which is preserved. The center of the west wall was pierced by a large, arched doorway, leading to the stairs, flanked by Ionic pilasters. The stairs were lighted by a semi-circular window at the landing, dis- playing in colors the family coat-of-arms, sim- ilar to one placed in the Dutch church in 1656.

The principal adornments in the main hall were two alabaster urns, six feet tall and handsomely carved with acanthus leaves, in- tended to hold lights. Two large equestrian statues in bronze stood in the central line, one of them depicting Chevalier Bayard, there being only one duplicate in existence. To the right of the entrance was a room about 24 feet square, the guest room or "Bridal Cham-

ber," as sometimes called, and beyond it, fur- ther to the east, the large drawing room, orna- mented with carved wood, statuary in marble and bronze, and many oil paintings upon the walls. To the rear of this was the library. Correspondingly were placed to the left of the entrance, the reception room, from which one entered, further to the west, the long dining- room, which was the scene of brilliant enter- tainments and had made the Manor House a noted place both here and abroad, for the foreign guests received at the Patroon's board not infrequently returned to their homes with glowing accounts of the sumptuous hospitality and the magnificence of the family plate.

When Stephen Van Rensselaer dicd, May 25, 1868, he left behind him an enviable re- putation for the sterling virtues which had distinguished the line from which he had de- scended. He was liberal in his benefactions and dispensed wealth freely to all charitable objects and church. On his death, about 2,500 acres between the Troy and Shaker roads, north of the Manor House and in which he had a life estate, reverted to his half-brother, William Paterson Van Rensselaer. Surviving him in his own immediate family, besides his widow, were: Margaret, wife of Wilmot Johnson, of Chases, Maryland ; Cornelia, wife of Nathaniel Thayer, of Boston ; Catherine, widow of Nathaniel Berry of Washington and Paris ; Justine, widow of Dr. Howard Town- send, then residing in Albany; Harriet, wife of Colonel John Schuyler Crosby, of New York City ; Laura Reynolds, widow of Bayard Van Rensselaer, living in Albany; and Eu- gene, who had married Miss Sarah Pendleton.

At the funeral, held in the old North Dutch Church of 1799, on May 28th, Rev. Rufus W. Clark officiated, assisted by Rev. Dr. Ken- nedy, of Troy, Rev. Dr. Vermilye preaching the sermon, and Rev. Dr. William Buel Sprague delivering the benediction. The mourners were followed by the physicians, wearing white linen scarfs. On the following Sunday, Rev. Dr. Clark preached a memorial discourse. The consistory of the Dutch Church, of which he had been an elder, met the day following his death and voiced this sentiment regarding their senior member : "We bear, with profound satisfaction, our testimony to his munificent liberality to this church, to the various public educational insti- tutions, to the societies for the extension of the Redeemer's Kingdom, and to every de- partment of Christian charity."

The Board of Lumber Dealers met on the 27th, and their resolution spoke of "our land- lord and friend, General Stephen Van Rens- selaer, whose intercourse with us has been

HUDSON AND MOHAWK VALLEYS

distinguished by fairness, considerateness and courtesy." The Albany Institute, of which body he was an early, most efficient patron and supporter, memorialized his "love of jus- tice and regard for the rights of others were strong by nature and invigorated by constant exercise, whose respect for truth and detesta- tion of deceit were always deeply felt." The Young Men's Christian Association assembled on the 29th and spoke of him as "our vener- able and honored friend, *

* in whom we have lost a personal friend, a public bene- factor, and an earnest supporter of our As- sociation."

General Stephen Van Rensselaer and Har- riet Elizabeth Bayard were married in New York City, by Bishop Hobart, of the Episco- pal church, January 2, 1817. She was born in New York City, February 12, 1799, and died in the Manor House at Albany, June 19, 1875. She was the daughter of William Bayard, who died September 18, 1826; who married, October 4, 1783, Elizabeth Cornell, born in 1764, died at the Manor House, Al- bany, January 17, 1854. William Bayard was the son of Colonel William Bayard and Cath- erine McEvers.

Colonel William Bayard was a prominent and opulent merchant of New York City, where he was born on June 1, 1729, and died at Southampton, England, in 1804. He re- sided at Castle Point, Hoboken, New Jersey, and, although he joined the Sons of Liberty, his estate was confiscated because his princi- ples would not permit him to aid the move- ment for independence. Ile was a direct de- scendant of Nicholas Bayard, born in Alphen, Holland, about 1644, who came to America with the Dutch Governor, Pieter Stuyvesant, landing at New Amsterdam on May 11, 1647, and died in New York, in 1707. He was mayor of New York in 1685, secretary of the Province of New York in 1673, and re- ceiver-general in 1663. Colonel William Bay- ard's wife, Catherine McEvers, was born in 1732 and died in 1814. Mrs. Stephen Van Rensselaer was a woman of superior educa- tion and culture, given to the most cordial hospitality, and her life was consecrated to kind acts. Following her death, in 1875, there was a division of the property among the heirs, and the Manor House was closed for- ever as a family habitation. In October, 1893, the building was razed, and the land thereabouts placed on the market. Twenty- five years later it was the scene of a number of manufacturing plants, and what were once handsome grounds and a forest park were bisected by spurs of railroad tracks.

The children of Gen. Stephen Van Rens-

selaer and Harriet Elizabeth Bayard were as follows :

I. Elizabeth Bayard, born at Albany, Oc- tober 4, 1817 : died July 7, 1819.

2. Margaret Schuyler, born at Albany, May 12, 1819; died at Albany, September 15, 1897 ; married, at Albany, April 12, 1837, John De- Peyster Douw (born in Albany, Dec. 16, 1812; died in Poughkeepsie, Jan. 30, 1901), son of Johannes DePeyster Douw and Cath- erine Douw Gansevoort; by whom: Henry Augustus (Douw), born at Albany, January 21, 1840, died February 23, 1854 ; and Harriet Van Rensselaer (Douw), born at Albany, March 20, 1842: died at Albany, August 31, 1862; married (second) Wilmot Johnson, of Catonsville, Maryland, April 24, 1851, who died in New York City, September 9, 1899.

3. Harrict Elizabeth, born at Albany, May 30, 1821 ; died there, September 19, 1821.

4. Cornelia Paterson, born at Albany, Janu- ary 24, 1823; died at Boston, Massachusetts, March 4, 1897 ; married, at Albany, June 10, 1846, Nathaniel Thayer, of Boston, son of Nathaniel Thayer and Sarah Toppan, who was born at Lancaster, Massachusetts, Sep- tember 11, 1808, and died at Boston, March 7, 1883 ; by whom: Stephen Van Rensselaer (Thayer), born at Boston, August 2, 1847, died there, October 10, 1871, married, Bos- ton, November 2, 1870, Alice Robeson ; Cor- nelia Van Rensselaer (Thayer), born at Bos- ton, October 23, 1849, died at New York, New York, July 19, 1903, married, Boston, No- vember 24, 1868, Hon. James Hampden Robb (q. v.); Nathaniel (Thayer) born Boston, June 13, 1851, residing in Boston and New- port, Rhode Island, in 1910, married, Balti- more, Maryland, February 1, 1881, Cornelia Street Barroll, who died February 18, 1885; married (second) Boston, June 11, 1887, Pau- line Revere; Harriet (Thayer), born at Bos- ton, February 16, 1853, died at Dublin, New Hampshire, September 16, 1891; married, Boston, October 11, 1883, John Forrester An- drew : Eugene Van Rensselaer (Thayer), born at Boston, December 27, 1855, died there, De- cember 20, 1907, married, Boston, December 21, 1880, Susan Spring ; John Eliot (Thayer), born at Boston, April 3, 1862, married, Clin- ton, Massachusetts, June 22, 1886, Evelyn Duncan Forbes ; Bayard (Thayer), born at Boston, April 3, 1862, married, Yarmouthport, Massachusetts, September 1, 1896, Ruth Simp- kins.

5. Stephen, born at Albany, June 12, 1824; died April 9, 1861 ; married Annie Wild, no issue.

6. Catherine, born at Albany, July 24, 1827 ; died at Washington, D. C., November 1, 1909;

HUDSON AND MOHAWK VALLEYS

married, in the Manor House, Albany, 1856, Nathaniel Berry, son of Nathaniel Berry and Anna Beach, of Washington and Paris (born Sharon, Conn., July 4, 1811 ; died, Paris, France, April 4, 1865), son of Nathan- iel Berry, by whom Katherine Van Rens- selaer (Berry), born at Paris, France, No- vember 2, 1857, died at Bar Harbor, Maine, September 14, 1907; Walter Van Rensselaer (Berry) born at Paris, France, July 29, 1859, residing in Washington, D. C., in 1910; and Nathalie (Berry), born at Paris, July 15, 1864, residing in Washington in 1910.

7. Justine, born at Albany, September 18, 1828; residing in New York city in 1910; married, in the Manor House at Albany, Feb- ruary 2, 1853, Howard Townsend, M.D., (son of Isaiah Townsend and Hannah Townsend) who was born at Albany, November 22, 1823, and died there January 16, 1867; by whom : Justine Van Rensselaer (Townsend), born at Albany, December 5, 1853, died at Paris, France, April 22, 1881, married at Albany, January 23, 1877, Lieut. Thomas Henry Bar- ber, U. S. A .; Helen Schuyler (Townsend), born at Albany, November 17, 1855, died there, May 27, 1858; Howard (Townsend), born at Albany, Aug. 23, 1858, attorney, prac- ticing in New York City in 1910; married, New York, New York, April 17, 1888, Sophie Witherspoon Dickey, who died at Saranac, New York, Jan. 29, 1892; married (second), New York, New York, October 20, 1894, Anne Lowndes Langdon ; Stephen Van Rens- selaer (Townsend), born at Albany, October 20, 1860; attorney ; died at Hempstead, Long Island, January 15, 1901, married, at Grace Church Chantry, New York City, May 22, 1888, Janet Eckford King; Harriet Bayard (Townsend), born at Albany, March 23, 1864, residing in New York City in 1910, married, New York, New York, April 28, 1886, Thomas Henry Barber.

8. William Bayard, born at Albany, 1830; died young.

9. Bayard, born at Albany, September 8, 1833; died at Pau, France, January 12, 1859; married at Albany, February 1, 1854, Laura Reynolds, born at Albany, November 22, 1830, daughter of Marcus T. Reynolds and Eliza- beth Ann Dexter; by whom: William Bay- ard, born at Albany, October 4, 1856, died at Albany, September 25, 1909, married, at Cam- bridge, Massachusetts, November 3, 1880, Louisa Greenough Lane; and Howard, born at Albany, June 26, 1858, (see forward).

IO. Harriet, born in the Manor House, Al- bany, July 3, 1838; residing in Washington, D. C., in 1910; married, in the Manor House, Albany, June 20, 1863, Colonel John Schuyler

Crosby (son of Clarkson Floyd Crosby and Angelica Schuyler ), who was born at Quidor Knoll (Watervliet ), Albany county, Septem- ber 19, 1839, and was residing in New York City in 1910; by whom: Stephen Van Rens- selaer (Crosby), born in the Manor House, Albany, May 14, 1868, married at Manches- ter, Massachusetts, September 18, 1895, Hen- rietta Grew ; and Angelica Schuyler (Crosby), born at Albany, June 26, 1872, died at Port- land, Maine, July 25, 1907, married, at Charlestown, West Virginia, February 12, 1903, John Brooks Henderson, Jr.

II. Eugene, born at Albany, October 12, 1840; residing at Berkeley Springs, West Vir- ginia, in 1910; married, at Baltimore, Mary- land, April 26, 1865, Sarah Pendleton (daugh- ter of Elisha Boyd Pendleton and Marie Lu- cinda Tutt), who was born at Martinsburgh, West Virginia, December 1I, 1846, and was residing at Berkeley Springs in 1910; by whom : Elizabeth Kennedy, born in the Manor House, Albany, May 31, 1866, married, at Washington, D. C., February 23, 1909, James Carroll Frazer; and Rev. Stephen, B. A., B. D., born in the Manor House, Albany, Janu- ary 17, 1869, married, at Lenox, Massachu- setts, October 10, 1900, Mary Thorn Carpen- ter, born March 18, 1861, died October 12, 1902.

(VII) Bayard Van Rensselaer, son of Gen- eral Stephen Van Rensselaer and Harriet Elizabeth Bayard, was born at Albany, New York, September 8, 1833, and died at Pau, France, January 12, 1859. He was the third son and ninth child, but his eldest brother died without issue, and his next elder brother died in infancy before he was born, hence the family name of William Bayard, bestowed upon the infant, was carried down by bap- tizing him Bayard. By birth, culture and associations he was one of the leaders in the most brilliant social set in Albany, and be- longed to a number of clubs and organiza- tions, among them the Burgesses' Corps, then composed of the most prominent young men in the city. His health being far from ro- bust, he sought to improve it by a sea voyage in 1858 and a sojourn in the most invigorating climate of France. Unfortunately, the results were not as beneficial as expected, for he died in France.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Hudson-Mohawk genealogical and family memoirs, Volume I, Part 5

Author: Reynolds, Cuyler, 1866-1934, ed Publication date: 1911 Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company Number of Pages: 656

Author: Reynolds, Cuyler, 1866-1934, ed
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 656